Turning Helplessness Into Hope
Doctor transforms personal cancer battle into fight for lymphoma patients.

By William Hawley, MD
President of the Lymphoma Research Foundation

As chief of cardiac surgery at INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma, I knew I should see a physician when I started noticing some small bumps on my scalp in September 1995. But I was just too busy with my own surgical practice and kept putting it off for “some day. ”

Some day came when a nodule appeared on my face. A biopsy, followed by a more careful exam, revealed an enlarged lymph node that gave the final diagnosis of lymphoma. I reviewed the biopsy slides with a pathology colleague who was very kind and sympathetic, but the blow of receiving a cancer diagnosis was overwhelming, despite my extensive experience helping patients in similar situations.

I suffered a complication from the biopsy site, which led to a severe infection. I was very ill, frightened and felt like I was facing my own immediate mortality. That was eight years ago.

After the initial shock from the diagnosis wore off, I did what most cancer patients do—I got busy learning all I could about the disease. The course of treatment prescribed was “watch and wait”—a strange concept for a surgeon to grasp since my idea of treatment usually involved something much more definitive.

My physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute suggested I meet one of his lymphoma patients, who had lived seven years so far with a “watch and wait.” After talking with his patient, Doug Lawless, I realized the importance of meeting others facing the same challenges.

Doug was a great help to me and I will never forget his words of encouragement. He had continued to practice law and adjusted to living with a widespread, incurable malignancy. Though he did eventually require chemotherapy, he continues to enjoy a long-term remission. We have become true friends and partners in a tough game.

After more than 30 years as a surgeon, I took leave from my practice so I could work as a full-time advocate for patients with hematologic malignancies, despite advice from several lymphoma specialists that I could, and possibly should, continue with my surgical practice. I now devote myself entirely to advocacy for lymphoma patients. My family and friends tease that I am the busiest unpaid physician in the country!

I became involved with the Lymphoma Research Foundation (LRF)—the nation’s largest lymphoma-focused nonprofit organization. LRF has a program that matches newly diagnosed patients with others facing the same type of disease (there are more than 30 different types of lymphoma).

Participating in this patient-to-patient program led to my speaking and counseling patients across the country through LRF’s Lymphoma Support Network. It was a chance for me to offer other patients the emotional support and encouragement I so badly needed when first diagnosed.

While I had long encouraged my patients to be their own best advocates with respect to their treatment and care, as a patient I realized the importance of a different type of advocacy—one that would lead me straight to Capitol Hill.

In June 2003, I testified before the U.S. Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee to request $25 million in funding for a national blood cancer research initiative. I’ve also participated in the annual Blood Cancer Advocacy Days, which provide patients and their families a chance to meet face-to-face with lawmakers to advocate for more blood cancer funding.

I am now president of LRF and plan to keep visiting Capitol Hill to urge Congress to pass initiatives that will help speed better treatments and eventually cures for the nearly 500,000 Americans suffering from lymphoma.
Would I choose this life with cancer if I had a choice? Perhaps. I believe it has made me a better physician, a better friend and a better husband and father. And through advocacy, I’ve learned that I do not have to live with a feeling of helplessness—because there is hope.

For more information about the Lymphoma Research Foundation, visit www.lymphoma.org or call 800-235-6848.